The Minister for Housing, Noel Ahern, has strongly defended the Government's record on providing affordable housing.
Speaking at the publication of new figures showing that housing output continues to rise at record levels, he also criticised property speculators for adding to price inflation.
The minister said he would be speaking to the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, about the possibility of introducing measures in the next Budget to curb property speculation.
Mr Ahern welcomed the 23% increase in housing output during the first seven months of 2006 and said if the trend continued housing output would reach records by the end of the year for the 13th consecutive year.
The minister also defended the Government's record on affordable housing. Figures show that the Government has only reduced a fraction of the affordable houses it promised under a number of schemes.
But Mr Ahern said affordable housing output is improving and in the coming years would rise to around 5-6,000 houses per year.
Mr Ahern welcomed the findings of new research that found that immigrants are making up a large proportion of buyers in the housing market.
He said that it showed many people coming in from abroad are doing well in the economy.
Many first time buyers are foreign: study
The new figures show almost one in five first time buyers are foreign nationals.
The Irish Mortgage Corporation found that over the past four years almost 50,000 people a year have been coming to live in Ireland, with a majority of them renting property.
However, despite high house prices, those who have been here for a number of years are buying property in larger numbers.
Of the people from other countries who buy homes here, 36% are Asian. A large proportion of those purchasers come from India, the Philippines and Pakistan.
One fifth are from Britain. 17% come from the EU excluding the UK. Many of them are from Poland and the Baltic states.
In the past foreign nationals have been credited with adding to demand in the rental market - now they are playing their part in the property market.
